Fire And Water
by Sierra Leona
Summary: Resident Evil: The Movie, as seen through the eyes of Matt Addison and Rain Ocampo. Brief Matt/Rain pairing.
1. Fire and Water

**Fire And Water**  
**Resident Evil from the perspectives of Matt and Rain. Brief Matt/Rain pairing.**  
**Characters and movie plot property of Sony. Resident Evil property of Capcom.**

**My first RE fic. Enjoy.**

* * *

The sun had just set over Raccoon City when Matt Addison brought his sedan to a halt in front of the Spencer Mansion. His sister Lisa worked far below the estate, in an underground laboratory nicknamed "The Hive". The mansion and lab were privately owned by the Umbrella Corporation, a powerful American pharmaceutical company.

Matt and his sister knew that there was more to Umbrella than the public was allowed to see. The company was far from friendly when it came to politics. Lisa had worked for years in The Hive, gathering evidence of Umbrella's unscrupulous practices and the developments it was making in the secret lab. She reported her findings to her brother, who worked with his fellow activists in an effort to take the company down. The evidence was almost completely irrefutable; they simply needed to find the last piece of in order to expose Umbrella.

The prime moment was scheduled to be tonight. Lisa had a contact, a co-worker, who had access to everything that she, a low-profile employee, could not secure on her own. This contact would provide her with a sample of the weapon Umbrella was developing in The Hive, a virus with unknown effects. Matt had warned her to choose someone trustworthy, lest she get herself caught... or worse. Ever since the arrangement had been made, Matt had felt a strong sense of uneasiness about bringing an unknown Umbrella employee into the plan, but Lisa had assured him that her contact wanted the company taken down as much as they did, and Matt was forced to bite his tongue and trust his sister.

She had not called that afternoon to confirm possession of the sample as planned. He had waited over an hour before calling her desk, praying that no one else would pick up. He was only to call that number in emergencies, but given the circumstances, he had considered this an emergency. There had been no answer. After waiting another hour with no word, he had decided to visit the mansion under his planned guise of being a police officer.

He found the Spencer gate open and the grounds deserted. Odd. Staying as far into the shadows as he could, Matt made his way to the estate and peered in. Every room was deserted. This wasn't what surprised him, since only Spence and his wife lived here, but the open back door did.

Spence's wife was standing on the back porch in a short red dress and black knee-high boots, looking disoriented. Matt stepped forward cautiously. He didn't know her name, but he did know that she was an Umbrella operative who was highly trained in martial arts. She was not someone he wanted to cross, but her worried look gave him the impression that something bad had happened. A cold feeling filled his stomach as he remembered Lisa.

A flock of birds took flight from the trees above and he saw the woman shiver. She looked panicked and walked back into the house. He waited for a moment and then decided to take his chances with this woman. False Raccoon City Police badge in hand, Matt slipped inside the house through a back window and grabbed her. She screamed. Matt paused briefly, wondering why an Umbrella soldier would be acting like such a... civilian.

He barely had time to wonder, however, when flood lights suddenly lit up the room and a special-ops team burst through the windows, tackling both of them before he could get to his gun. "I'm a cop," he shouted, trying to wrench his arm out of their grasp to show his I.D.

They found it for him and shined a flashlight in his face, causing him to go momentarily blind. He heard one of them mutter, "He's not in the system."

"I just transferred here," Matt yelled over the noise, mind racing to find a believable excuse. He had expected to fool Spence, not Umbrella's army. "They probably haven't put me in yet!"

The soldiers nodded to each other, seemingly accepting his story. He felt handcuffs snap into place around his wrists and panicked. "You can't do this," he started to protest.

The soldier to his right removed her mask, revealing a hardened-looking brunette. "Blow me," she snarled as she pulled him up and forced him into The Hive's secret entrance.

* * *

Rain Ocampo didn't have much patience for tools like the one she was escorting into The Hive. She didn't believe for a moment that he was really a cop. Probably one of those tree-hugging assholes that spent most of their sorry lives writing letters to Congress about her employer. Probably trying to steal something exciting from The Hive to make his anti-establishment buddies cream their pants over him. Had she been in charge, she would have sent him right back to the real R.P.D. But One wanted to take the guy with them, and he was the man in charge. She told the cop he should consider himself lucky. He had already gotten further than most of them did.

The false mirror that led from the mansion to the underground lab slid back into place behind her as the team led the way, guns at the ready. All they had been told was that the Queen had gone berserk down here, and that could mean any number of things. Rain guessed that some stooge had probably burnt his popcorn and set off the fire alarm. It would figure.

She shoved the cop onto the train that led to the lab and boarded behind him. "Power's down," said Kaplan from the controls.

"I'm on it," replied Rain. She lightly dropped through the maintenance door of the train and stuck her flashlight in her mouth, squinting as she searched for the broken connection. Luckily, it was an easy fix. She snapped the connectors back into place, but as she did so, her ears perked at a shuffling noise from below the train. She held her light up. Nothing but the tracks ahead. Must have been a rat.

Just as she was standing up, J.D. reached down and nearly gave her a heart attack. She placed the power supply back on the track, gave him the finger, and climbed back into the train compartment.

The cop watched Rain fight with the sealed back door of the train as they moved along. She turned and looked at him with an icy glare, then glanced at Spencer's wife, who was also watching. "You got a problem?"

They shrugged and focused their attention on the floor. _Yeah, didn't think so._ J.D. playfully pushed her aside to give the door a try. Fine, let the macho man do it. She walked to the other side of the compartment and narrowed her eyes at her partner.

The door burst open and Spencer fell inside. Rain glanced at the blonde, who didn't show any signs of recognition. They weren't expected; the mansion had knocked the couple out with gas when The Hive had locked down. They both had a temporary case of amnesia. Rain turned back to J.D. "Jumpy?" she mocked.

* * *

The woman in red stared at her husband with a mix of fear and curiosity. Matt could tell she didn't know who he was. He considered mentioning it, but decided that he didn't want to help an employee of Umbrella for any reason. Spence's wife was inspecting her wedding ring, likely making some sort of connection with the man on the floor.

Matt rested his head against the wall behind him, watching the bitch who had handcuffed him pace the car. This girl needed a vacation or a lay. Possibly both. He couldn't help but grin at the idea. Luckily she was too preoccupied with the unconscious Spence to notice.

One of the male soldiers escorted him off the train when they arrived. His thoughts raced. Lisa had to be here. From what he was gathering, there had been an emergency and the whole place had been barricaded. All he needed to do was get the keys to his handcuffs off the brunette and he could go find his sister.

Spence's wife bombarded the S.W.A.T. leader with questions as they approached. Matt tuned out during the explanation, already aware of The Hive's purpose, and focused his attentions on the woman with the keys to his freedom. She was busy opening the final doors. "Sir, we've reached The Hive," she called.

The group entered the lobby. Matt had heard about the above-ground atmosphere of The Hive, but this was his first time experiencing it. The false windows of the laboratory created an illusion of being high above San Francisco, complete with traffic noise. He walked over to them. Noting that Spence's wife was also staring at the illusion, he said aloud, "Makes it easier to work underground..."

"The Red Queen's locked onto us," reported one of the soldiers as the team headed down the stairs.

"Who's the Red Queen?" asked Spence's wife. Matt listened closely behind her. Lisa knew a lot of things about The Hive, but he had never heard of a queen.

"She's the computer that controls The Hive," explained the S.W.A.T. leader before ordering his team to find a route to the computer to shut it down. Matt heard him call the soldiers by name and took note of the Latina's: Rain.

"The Red Queen went homicidal and killed everyone down here," the leader was saying. Matt stared at him in disbelief. They were entering an underground laboratory run by one of the most untrustworthy companies in the world... and it was being held hostage by a computer? Knowing Umbrella, Matt assumed they had put far too much stock into artificial intelligence.

His peripheral vision caught a movement and he gasped and jumped back against the wall. It was one of the Red Queen's recent victims, floating in a sea of toxic water behind the glass of an enclosed office.

"Jesus," he shouted, wishing his hands weren't restrained behind his back. That could have been Lisa. Lisa could be dead! In fact, she likely was dead if what the soldier said was true. _Killed everyone down here..._ He had to get out of the handcuffs.


	2. Opposites Attract

"Poor bastards," sighed Rain, watching the woman's corpse bump lazily against the thick glass. She didn't sound convincing. It was a dog-eat-dog world working for Umbrella, and she was just glad she wasn't down here four hours ago. At least this was more interesting than burnt popcorn.

The cop was staring at every air conditioning vent he walked by. "What's your deal?" she asked, poking him with the muzzle of her TMP.

"What," he replied, looking confused.

"I hope you're not thinking you can go crawling through the air ducts," she said. "You won't get very far. What's your real name?"

"Didn't you read my badge," he asked coolly.

"No, J.D. did." What an idiot, he couldn't even tell her from her male partner. "What's your name?"

"Matt."

"So, Matt. Just how recently did you get transferred?"

He paused. "A few weeks ago?"

"Are you asking me?"

"No, a few weeks ago."

Rain stopped him, tired of the games. "You're not a fucking cop. You know what? I deal with do-gooders like you every week, trying to put me out of a job just because you can't fucking get a respectable one. And let me tell you one more thing, Matt," she backed him against the wall, gun casually pointed toward him. "It's not gonna work, just like it's never worked before. As soon as we get out of The Hive, you're going to be spending a lot of time in court trying to explain why you had to break into Umbrella's property tonight."

The man swallowed hard, staring down the barrel of Rain's weapon. He said nothing. She knew she had hit the nail on the head. "Rain," One called from down the hall. "Get over here!"

She gave Matt one more look of poison before grabbing his arm and shoving him in the direction of the squad leader. They entered the dining hall, or so Kaplan had reported it was. Unless The Hive's workers ate between cryogenic tanks, the room had to be mislabeled. "Maybe the corporation's keeping a few secrets," Matt said ominously.

Rain rolled her eyes. It was obvious that she had been right all along about him. She pressed her gun into his ribs again. He shut up.

"Give me a search but keep it tight," One was saying. Rain assumed she was still stuck with the hippie.

"Move it," she snapped, leading him through the rows of steaming cells. He wondered aloud what the equipment was for. "None of my business," Rain shrugged.

"You really don't care that there are huge mysterious tanks in the dining room of a company that manufactures medicine? _Your_ employer?"

"How many times do I have to shove this gun into your face before you realize I don't give a shit?"

"Why not?"

Rain had just about had enough of this guy. She shoved him against a tank. "What's it gonna take for you to shut up?"

He blinked at her. "Let me out of the handcuffs."

She shook her head. "Sorry, Mattie, no can do. I've got orders. As much as I'd like you to be out of my hair, I can't put my ass on the line if you run off."

Matt cocked his head and studied Rain's face. So she wasn't into feeling guilty about Umbrella's actions and she wasn't willing to give in to bribery. He was running out of options. Remembering his thoughts on the train, he decided to try something. As the female soldier leaned in close to spit another biting remark at him, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. She recoiled immediately, looking briefly shocked before regaining her usual cold attitude. She gripped her gun and opened her mouth as if to shout for her team, but said nothing. "We'll discuss this later," she growled, taking him by the arm again.

_At least she didn't shoot me..._

* * *

Who did this asshole think he was? Rain was fuming as she dug her fingers into Matt's arm, pulling him along like a leashed dog as she halfheartedly checked for survivors between rows. She was never caught off guard like that by a man. And what kind of situation was this, where he thought he could just start making out with her? Did he think she was that easy? Did he think she had any remote interest in an anti-establishment geek like him?

Men like Matt didn't just outright kiss her unless they wanted their nuts in a vice a minute later. And they certainly didn't kiss her when she was on duty. And they _certainly_ didn't kiss her in an underground laboratory filled with dead people. Rain felt her cheeks burning. She tried to shove it down, but a feeling of embarrassment crept over her. She realized that this pseudo-cop had kissed her and she didn't knee him in the crotch or knock his lights out. In fact, she had told him they would "discuss it later." Discuss what? She didn't know, but she did know he would be discussing it with her fist.

"We're walking in circles," Matt said timidly behind her, bringing her back to reality. Sighing, she shoved him in front of her. "Then show me the way, genius," she sneered.

He led Rain back to J.D. and sat sullenly on the edge of a storage box. Her partner was looking around with curiosity. "What the hell do they keep in these things?"

"How do I know," Rain shrugged. Why was everyone asking her these stupid questions? She watched the cop, who was looking uncomfortable in his restraints. Rain let a smile show on her lips. Maybe she'd let him out later, the poor kid. She blinked to clear her head, angry with herself for going soft over an unwelcome kiss. Maybe it _had_ been too long since she had gotten laid. He could stay in those handcuffs, the bastard.

The rest of the team had moved on to the Red Queen's chamber, hoping to shut the computer down. Rain paced, agitated. After about five minutes, the power flickered and went out. Rain inhaled sharply, bringing her gun to the ready. The lights returned in a few seconds.

"They must have gotten to the computer. Take a breather, Rain," suggested J.D., noticing her tense disposition. "I'll stay with the prisoner."

She clenched her jaw and stared at Matt, quickly making a decision she never would have made when she entered The Hive. "No, I'll take him with me," she told her partner. "Maybe he's ready to tell the truth about what he was doing up there."

She pulled Matt up and shot him an amused look. "Come on, cop."

* * *

The R.P.D. imposter followed Rain down the rows of tanks, wondering why she brought him along. He thought about how angry she had looked about his kiss, and assumed that he was about to "discuss this" now. He blandly hoped she would unlock his wrists before killing him. Maybe he'd have a chance of escape.

She led him down a dim hall adjacent to the dining room and backed him against the wall with her gun. "What do you think I am," she demanded.

Matt feigned ignorance. "I don't know what you're talking about." He winced as she jabbed his stomach harder with her weapon.

"You know, the... kissing me back there," she said in a menacing voice. "Do you have any idea what I do to men who treat me like that?"

Clearly this was the wrong option for getting out of his handcuffs. Matt noticed that she had a habit of dramatically pronouncing every word when she was angry. She was definitely pissed at this point. He looked fearfully into her dark eyes, narrowed inches from his face, expecting a bullet or a fist coming from her direction at any moment.

Instead, she set the gun down and pressed her body to his. "You want to play this game, Matt? We can," she breathed. "Normally I'd castrate you for being such a jerk..."

This was definitely a surprise. Maybe it had worked after all. He became aware of Rain's hand moving up his chest and around the back of his neck, pulling him down for another sensual kiss. His muscles relaxed. He hadn't noticed how attractive Rain could be until she pressed herself into him. Apparently his hormones were aware, because as her palm brushed down his body, he realized that he was extremely turned on by her touch.

She didn't hesitate to make her way into his pants, methodically removing his belt and unbuttoning the bottom of his shirt. This was not surprising, given her to-the-point attitude elsewhere. He gasped as she touched him, trying to keep it quiet so J.D. wouldn't hear. She hadn't let him out of the handcuffs yet, but at the moment he couldn't muster the mental capacity to care. Her warm mouth closed around him and he glanced down at her for a moment before closing his eyes and relaxing against the wall.

* * *

The Umbrella soldier knew that she had completely lost her mind. She was on a mission, a dangerous one at that, and here she was, blowing a guy she didn't even know in a dark hall like some two-dollar hooker. She was disgusted with herself, but she couldn't stop. _Never again,_ she told herself. _Get what you need and never be so unprofessional again._

She was attracted to Matt, but she didn't know why. She hated everything his kind stood for. Maybe it was his piercing blue eyes or the toned body she had felt beneath his thin shirt while dragging him around earlier. Either way, it didn't matter. She wouldn't have to see him for long. When they got back to the surface, One would have him carted off to be dealt with and she'd forget about this whole mistake.

Matt groaned above her and sucked in his breath, straining desperately against his handcuffs as he came. Rain waited until he had relaxed, then backed away and spit quietly in a corner. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and turned back to Matt, who had slid halfway down the wall in satisfaction. She knelt beside him and he looked at her through half-closed eyes. A smile played on her lips.

"Rain," J.D.'s voice came in over her walkie-talkie. "Come in, you okay?"

Matt seemed to force himself to stand up. "A little help," he asked, brandishing his handcuffs.

Rain smirked and shook her head, pulling his pants back into place for him. "You're staying in the cuffs for now." She saw Matt grit his teeth and knew that his kiss was only a ploy. No matter; it hadn't worked, and she didn't find herself angry about it, simply amused at his feeble effort to trick her. She unhooked her radio from her belt. "Yeah, J.D., I'm coming back now."

She sauntered back to her partner, picking her nails nonchalantly with her pocketknife. "Where have you been?" J.D. asked. Not waiting for an answer, he added, "They're late."

There was just under an hour and a half left on the countdown to The Hive's closing. As Rain checked her watch, the trio was startled by what sounded like a falling pipe on the far side of the room. "I'm on it," she volunteered.

There was definitely something in the room. More metallic crashes sounded as Rain swept up the rows with her TMP, closing in on the source. It was a woman, leaning awkwardly against a pillar.

"J.D., we've got a survivor," Rain yelled as she approached.

"It's okay," she said calmly, reaching for the woman. The survivor collapsed into her arms. Rain's eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of the face. Pale and bloody, the eyes inhumanly bluish-white. Before she could react, the woman had sunk her teeth into the flesh between Rain's thumb and forefinger. Suddenly Rain found herself on the ground, desperately trying to hold the crazed survivor away. J.D. came racing around the corner. "Get her off me before I stab her ass!"

He threw the creature off Rain and helped her up. "She bit me," Rain said in disbelief, staring at the bloody teeth marks in her hand. J.D. cocked his pistol and fired several rounds into the woman. She hissed throatily after each one but still stumbled forward. Rain knew there was no way this... woman could still be alive. Frustrated with J.D.'s ineffective gun, she held up her TMP and emptied a dozen bullets into the creature's chest. It flew backward and landed in a pile of hoses, finally lying still. Rain looked at J.D., silently telling him _this is how it's done._

"I shot her five times, how was she still standing," he murmured.

"Bitch isn't standing now," Rain sneered.

Matt appeared behind her, followed by Kaplan, Spencer, and Blondie. "What was all the shooting," Kaplan demanded.

"We found a survivor," Rain sighed, wrapping her injured hand with gauze.

"And you shot him?"

Rain turned her head and shot him a look of annoyance. "_She_ was crazed. She bit me."

"She's gone!" The group looked over at J.D.

"That's bullshit," Rain snapped. Sure enough, the demented survivor had vanished. Rain's stomach flipped. She had pumped that thing full of lead; there was no way it could have walked away.

Spencer's wife and Matt were inspecting the blood trail left by the creature. "Looks like it's coagulated," Matt said in the know-it-all voice Rain had come to despise. "Blood doesn't do that until after you're dead."

Rain was ready to shut him up when Spencer did the honor for her. "Can we go now," he asked impatiently.

"We have to wait for the rest of the team," she said. Kaplan's worried look caught her eye. This could only mean one thing.

"There's no one else coming," he said, confirming her suspicions.

"What the fuck are you talking about," she asked hostilely, approaching her teammate. There was no way One was dead... J.D. hushed them. Another metallic rattling had begun, much like the one that had led her to the flesh-eating woman. Another wave of dread washed over her. A crowd of the same deranged survivors was closing in. If fifteen bullets couldn't hold one of them down, there was no point in trying to beat this many with the relatively small amount of firepower the team carried. She stood rooted to the spot, gun ready.

* * *

Matt gripped the keys to his handcuffs tightly as the undead creatures approached the group. They had fallen out of Rain's pocket when she had been assaulted, and he had managed to pick them up while analyzing the woman's blood as a distraction. He tried to work the keys into the cuffs one by one, knowing that once the victims of Umbrella's deadly practices had overpowered the team, no one would remember to defend the guy in handcuffs.

Rain was again tackled by a woman, but this time she was ready. She snapped the creature's neck and it fell, finally dead. The team opened fire on the approaching crowd, whom Matt noticed were grotesquely burned, torn, and decayed. The key was not finding its way into the lock fast enough. Spence's wife was yelling directions, which didn't seem to help, and Kaplan was ordering the victims to stay back.

The team charged down the hall, leaving Matt still struggling with his cuffs. Spence's wife grabbed him, shouting. A tank spontaneously exploded, throwing both of them to the floor. Matt blinked, seeing stars. His head ached and he slowly registered that he had lost the keys. Frantically looking around, he saw them under a ledge and crawled over. An Umbrella victim, on fire from the explosion, stumbled toward him and he kicked it, knocking the keys down the grate behind him in the process. _Fuck!_ his mind screamed as he strained to feel them through the holes in the grate.

Fortunately, he discovered that it was shallow. The fiery victim grabbed his leg and he shook the creature off. Mercifully, his fingers found the keys then. He viciously kicked the zombie at his feet, but it had already transferred the flames to his ankle. Shaking his leg vigorously, Matt finally felt the click of the handcuffs releasing and immediately began attempting to smother the fire creeping up his leg. Several undead had approached him now, and there was an inhuman roar shaking the tank behind him. He had almost given in to his fate when a pair of living human hands pulled him to safely. Spence's wife. Thank God for her. They ran. Matt followed the woman halfway back to the team and then quietly slipped away to find Lisa's office.

* * *

Rain clicked her last remaining clip into her gun. "Hurry up, I'm running out of ammo!" Kaplan had been working on that door far too long, what did he think this was, a party? Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of J.D. taking over the access pad. She squeezed her trigger at the crowd in front of her and glanced back just in time to see the doors open behind J.D., revealing another massive crowd of undead.

"NO!" she screamed, voice cracking as her tears welled up. The creatures dragged her partner into their midst. Rain reached for him and ignored the several sets of teeth that met her arm. Spencer and Kaplan pulled her back and all she could do was helplessly watch J.D. get eaten alive.

_J.D..._

The two men dragged her to the Red Queen's chamber and sealed the doors.

"There's too many of them out there," Rain said in shock, flexing her injured hand. _ J.D..._

"Lab coats, badges... those people used to work here," Kaplan shouted, nearly losing it.

"All the people working here are dead," Rain told him, refusing to believe what she already knew. "When you cut the power, you unlocked the doors. _You_ let them out!" She wanted to hit someone and Kaplan was making the decision easier.

He ignored her bait. "We're never going to make it back to the surface."

Rain frankly didn't care who these creatures were or why they were acting this way. She wanted more ammo, a painkiller, and sunlight. Giving Matt another blowjob wasn't sounding so bad at the moment, either. _Speaking of which..._

"Where's the blonde and the cop?"


	3. Decimated

Matt had discovered Lisa's office, and not surprisingly, his sister was nowhere to be found. Her badge, however, was lying on her desk. Cautiously, Matt knelt and began rifling through his sister's overturned filing cabinet.

A hiss sent him off balance, and he jerked his head up in surprise. A victim in a suit had discovered him and was trying to break its way through the thick glass wall of Lisa's office. _Stupid creature,_ he thought to himself. It continued banging into the window futilely. Matt sat at Lisa's desk, ignoring the zombie on the other side of the glass, and sorted through his sister's evidence.

Rattling breaths caught his ear, and he whipped around to see Lisa shuffling toward him. He stood quickly and immediately knew that she was one of them, but he found part of himself hoping that his sister still existed beneath those glazed eyes. A lump arose in his throat as she reached almost delicately to him, and then lunged at his neck.

Matt fought to keep his sister from biting him. She was strong now, and quite a match for him. He didn't know how much longer he could hold her off... but Spence's wife came to his rescue just in time, bashing the undead Lisa's skull with a paperweight. She slumped to the ground. Matt watched with pity and felt his anger toward Umbrella. When he looked up, he noticed the blonde woman staring at her oddly. "Who was she," she whispered.

"My sister," said Matt, stroking Lisa's hair. Suddenly, he found himself telling Spence's wife his whole story. He told her about his purpose for being at the Spencer Mansion earlier that evening, and about his sister's inside contact. "Maybe she trusted the wrong person..."

The woman in red said nothing.

* * *

Blondie and Matt, now handcuff-free, came bursting through the door, shouting, "Don't shoot!" Rain relaxed her grip on her pistol, pissed off. Did they think they could just run off for some fun? Now they were letting undead into the last secure room in The Hive. She had had just about enough of these two.

"It's a dead end," Kaplan was telling them. "There's no way out of the Queen's chamber."

Spencer wasn't concerned. "If someone doesn't hear from us, they'll send backup, right?" He glanced around. "Right?"

Rain gave him a steely look. This was the mission from hell. "You know those blast doors we passed on the way in from the mansion? They seal shut in just under an hour." She saw Matt looking panicked, but she didn't care. "If we're not out by then, we're not getting out."

She reluctantly explained Umbrella's failsafe quarantine plan for The Hive. Spence was angry, and as always, vocal about it. Rain pondered gagging the jerk with her last bit of gauze. He was quite possibly more annoying with amnesia than he was normally.

"We have to find a way out of this room," said Blondie. _No fucking shit, sweetheart._

"What are you doing," Rain demanded as Spencer's wife picked up the Red Queen's motherboard. "That homicidal bitch killed my team."

"That homicidal bitch may be our only way out of here," replied the other woman sarcastically as she clicked the computer back on.

A red hologram appeared directly in front of Rain, startling her. It disappeared almost instantly, but a young girl's voice still rang over the intercom. Just another thing Rain didn't want to deal with. A sassy little kid holding her life in its hands. "Gimme that switch, I'm gonna fry her ass," she snarled, attacking Kaplan. Matt stopped her.

"What about the T-virus," he asked the computer. Rain didn't see the point in this conversation, but she kept her mouth shut and listened. What the Red Queen told them simply confirmed what she already knew: the creatures outside the chamber were undead who ate flesh and could only be killed with a shot to the head. She had gathered as much half an hour ago.

But Matt, ever the philanthropist, continued to ask the Queen why everyone was killed. Once again the computer gave him a lengthy answer she could have summarized in less than 10 words. She did begin to understand, however, why he had been looking at the air vents earlier.

"Just one bite, one scratch from these creatures is sufficient," the Red Queen added. "And then you become one of them."

Rain numbly remembered all of the bites she had received during the mission so far. She knew she was a goner. She sighed. Might as well get as far as possible. Maybe save Kaplan and that bleeding-heart she was inexplicably attracted to.

The computer directed the team to an exit that could be reached through a maintenance tunnel below the room. Rain pried open the door and looked at Spencer's wife. "After you."

They made their way through the sewers of The Hive, guns at the ready. Spencer trailed behind, whining incessantly at every turn that the Red Queen had lied to them. Rain swore that when she turned into a flesh-eater, he'd be the first to go. "Enough already," she snapped, throwing the man against a grate in the wall. "We have no choice but to keep going."

As she released him, a hand shot through the grate behind Spencer and clutched at his arm. Matt yanked him out of its grasp and Rain kept her pistol trained on the zombies, knowing it wasn't much use. They began to push through the gate as the rest of the mob behind them caught up. The team was surrounded.

"Up on the pipes," Spencer's wife shouted from behind her. Matt took charge of directing the group up onto a set of steam pipes running just below the ceiling. Kaplan suddenly yelled in pain. He had been bitten. Rain whipped around and shot the bastard latched onto his leg. Another bit her hand, causing her gun to fall into a murky puddle at her feet. She kicked the creature off and retrieved her weapon.

What she saw when she stood up made her freeze. There he was, one of them. Dirty as hell and glassy-eyed.

"J.D.," she breathed. Before she could gather herself, her former partner's bloody jaw had closed on her neck. An intense pain ripped through her body. She shook him off, angrier than she had ever been in her life. Taking quick aim, she put a bullet in his brain before he could get to her again.

The men hauled her up onto the pipes and she collapsed, trying to forget that her throat had nearly been ripped out. She lifted her hand and looked at the fresh bite marks in her arm. _Oh, what's the point?_ She rolled over on her stomach and watched a trickle of her own blood fall into the waiting mouth of an undead woman below.

Sitting up, she began taunting the creatures beneath, who were reaching up to her desperately. She squeezed the blood from her latest wound into the crowd below, which howled and hissed in pleasure.

"Rain," Blondie was saying, "we have to do something about your wounds."

"I'm fine," she replied apathetically. A hand grabbed her. She realized how weak she had become. "I said I'm fine," she repeated more forcefully, wrestling out of the woman's grip.

"You like that, don't you, huh," Rain growled at the zombies, shaking more blood from her hand at them. "You like the way it tastes, don't you? You like the taste of that, you bastards?"

* * *

Matt was petrified. He had nearly lost all hope of getting out alive, and if he did, he knew the mental trauma would require a lifetime of therapy. So far he hadn't been bitten, but he knew it was still a long way to the train, and God only knew what they would find there. He jumped a mile at every shake of the pipes below him as he led the group along the sewer ceiling to sweet safety. He looked back occasionally at Rain, worried intensely about her. He didn't want to think about how many bites the woman had sustained or what the remaining three survivors would have to do once she became one of the creatures. Shaking his head, he dismissed those thoughts. Though they all worked for Umbrella, he hadn't wanted to see any of them die this way.

The group crossed a large room, staying about a foot above the sea of crazed teeth and hands reaching for them. Matt kicked a grate in when he reached the opposite wall, noting that it led to a tunnel that was mercifully free of the creatures.

"Kaplan!" Spence's wife screamed from the room behind him. Matt glanced back to see the soldier hanging from the now-broken pipes, legs being devoured by the demons beneath. He swore aloud and turned back, helping Spence and Rain into the tunnel before the pipes collapsed altogether, throwing Spence's wife into him. He caught and pulled her up with her husband's help. It was down to four.

* * *

Kaplan had fallen to the floor, screaming as he struggled against his assailants. Rain was pointing her handgun at the crowd, trying desperately to blink away her double vision.

"I can't focus," she yelled hoarsely. She was not going to lose Kaplan, she couldn't be the only one left from her team. Intense frustration overcame her. "I can't see!"

Someone grabbed the gun from her and the next thing she knew, Kaplan was free. She blinked and discovered that it had been Blondie, who she now realized was the last cool head in this group. Rain didn't like that feeling, but she knew there was nothing she could do about it. They were going to bleed to death down here and there was nothing to do about it but keep moving. Feeling inadequate and powerless, she let her tears come.

Poor Kaplan. She thought he had stood a chance. He had crawled up a pipe across the room and was futilely trying to fend off the zombies by kicking his leg at them. "I want you to go," he said almost inaudibly.

Rain looked up in disbelief. No way was she going to leave him. Spencer's wife protested. There was a small argument between them, but Rain could barely understand it. Her ears only heard her burning anger. Everyone from her squad was doomed. She slumped against the grate in front of her, gasping for breath between quiet sobs. Matt's arms hooked under hers and lifted her up, pulling her body against her will into the tunnel. _I can't leave Kaplan..._

He forced her to crawl ahead and led her up a ladder. She barely heard him talking. "Give me your arm... up over my shoulder..."

She let him hold her up, going limp in his arms with defeat. _Kaplan..._ Rain couldn't hold it in anymore. She leaned forward and heaved the contents of her stomach all over the floor.

"I'm sorry," she croaked. She could barely keep her eyes open, and every breath was labored. Her heart was beating slowly, trying its best to make do with the insufficient amount of blood she had left.

Matt stopped and lifted her chin up gently. "Don't apologize." Rain smiled weakly at him. For an anti-Umbrella activist, he was pretty nice. She hoped he would survive.

* * *

Spence took Rain's left arm over his shoulder and Matt wrapped his arm around her waist, propping her up. She took shuffling steps as they dragged her along. "When I get out of here, I think I'm gonna get laid," she said.

"Yeah, you might want to clean up a little bit first," Matt replied, briefly hoping he would live through the same goal. Maybe they could do the celebratory lay together, he thought, amused. Spence stopped the trio and looked back.

His wife was staring into space with that same odd expression she had sported when she saw Lisa. "Are you okay," Matt called.

"Blue for the virus, green for the antivirus," she whispered. Matt approached her and she whipped around, startled. "There's a cure."

"What are you talking about?"

"There's a cure," she repeated. "The process can be reversed! There's a cure," she shouted down the hall to Rain.

He followed her into a flooded lab, growing more suspicious with every step. "This is where they kept the T-virus," she said distractedly.

"How do you know all this?"

"Because I was going to steal it," she said, turning around. "I was your sister's contact."

Matt felt the blood drain from his face. This woman had been the one. She had done this. She had killed Lisa. "You caused all of this," he said angrily.

"I don't know," she kept repeating. Matt wasn't buying it.

He gripped her arm. "What's the truth?"

The woman easily wrenched her arm out of his grasp. "I don't know the truth," she said icily before stepping into the water below. Spence appeared, dragging a half-conscious Rain. The soldier collapsed, leaning against a railing as the woman in red struggled to open a door across the room.

"It's gone, it's not there," she said, returning.

* * *

"I can't," started Rain, trying to form a coherent thought. There had been one brief promise for survival and though it was small, she had begun to think it was real. But no, all hope had once again been crushed. "I just can't... it's over."

Blondie stroked her hair with sympathy and she shook the woman off in anger. This was stupid. They were dragging her along for no reason. How much blood did she have to lose before she'd die, already? This could not get much worse.

Rain was wrong again. The next thing she knew, Spencer and his wife were at some sort of standoff with the last remaining pistol the group had. _Spencer_, that motherfucker. She knew she always hated his ass for a reason. He was giving a crazed villain-type speech about selling the virus and buying a mansion for both of them. _You already own a goddamn mansion,_ Rain's mind screamed in frustration, but she felt too apathetic to try voicing the thought.

Matt, probably feeling like this was his moment to shine, had jumped over the railing and approached Spencer. _Great, now he's gonna die too._ He and Spencer stared each other down. The testosterone was almost tangible at this point, Rain thought sarcastically. She closed her eyes, not exactly wanting to see Matt get shot by that bastard. Spencer was taunting the man about "people like him" trying to change the world. Rain grew angry. Although she felt the same way about Matt's type, she didn't want anything in common with this worm.

"Where is the antivirus," she struggled to say in her most sinister voice. Unfortunately, it came out more pathetic than anything. She wished she had a gun and her strength back.

"On the train" was all she needed to hear, and she easily tuned out the predictable "And I'm getting away with it" speech that followed. She had to live until the train.

* * *

Matt silently watched a grotesque lab worker approach Spence from behind as he spoke to his wife about his plan for the virus. The zombie went for his neck and the man with the gun screamed, shooting her several times. Matt tackled Spence and received an elbow to the face, knocking him back underwater. When he resurfaced, Spence had managed to escape, locking the lab door from the outside just as Matt ran headlong into it. "Your boyfriend's a real asshole," Rain commented.

They were trapped. "He shot the locking mechanism out," Matt reported, pissed off. "I can't believe that son of a bitch is gonna get away with this."

"I don't think so," the Red Queen's young voice echoed through the lab. The group turned to an overhead monitor, which was now displaying Umbrella's distinctive _U_ logo. "I've been a bad, bad girl."

"What do you mean," Rain croaked.

"Watch," said the computer. The monitor switched to a view of the train, clearly depicting Spence's form next to it. He was preparing to inject himself with the antivirus. His wife swore under her breath.

Just as he had readied the needle, however, there was a roaring heard off-camera. Spence looked up and screamed before being attacked by a huge animal of some sort. It looked vaguely humanoid, but only just. Its long claws ripped through Spence's body, slitting his throat. It turned and hissed. Matt watched in horror as a long tongue extended from its mouth and licked its chops at the camera, as if it could see them. The Red Queen turned off the camera. "What the _fuck_ was _that_?"

* * *

Rain hated Umbrella so fucking much. Matt had been right. They were a fucked up company. She listened, breath rattling loudly through her lungs, to the technical explanation for the hell-spawned creature with the repulsive tongue. It was a Licker, created by injecting the virus directly into living tissue. Meaning a live person. Rain would have thrown up again, had she not already done so. Instead, she simply gagged violently, thinking about the creature becoming stronger as the computer had mentioned.

"If you knew it was loose, why didn't you warn us," Matt was asking. Rain figured that was obvious. The quarantine was designed to kill everyone within The Hive. They weren't dead quite yet. The Red Queen's response confirmed her guess.

"Why didn't you tell us about the antivirus," she asked hoarsely. There should be no reason to kill them if they were clean.

"This long after infection," replied the girl's voice in an annoyingly unsympathetic manner, "there's no guarantee it would work."

Rain realized there was little use arguing with the machine, but she was desperate for some good news. "But there's a chance, right?"

"I don't deal in chance."

Motherfucking computer. Rain struggled to stand and reached for the emergency escape axe hung on the wall. She dragged it over to the windows of the lab before noticing the multiple chips in the glass. The axe had already been used by the lab workers. Well. She knew what had happened to _them_.

"Fuck it," she groaned. Squinting at her watch, she saw that there were just 20 minutes left. "No pressure, guys."

The godforsaken computer started talking to them again. "I can give you the code, but first you must do something for me. One of your group is infected. I require her life for the code."

Praise everything, this was it. She could save Blondie and the pretty boy by ending her miserable life now.

"The antivirus is right there on the platform," Blondie protested.

"I'm sorry, but it's a risk I cannot take."

"She's right," said Rain, tossing the axe to Spencer's wife with her last bit of strength. "It's the only way. You're gonna have to kill me."

"No."

She knew that was coming. "Otherwise, we all die down here," she argued loudly, moving forward so that Blondie could easily strike true with the axe.

A thump and roar made her jump back into their arms. It was the Licker, clawing against the other side of the glass. "The glass is reinforced, but it won't hold forever," taunted the Queen.

Enough of this bullshit. Rain twisted out of their grip and fell to her knees. "Do it!"

"Rain, please get up," said Blondie. She frantically pleaded with Matt for assistance.

"Just do it," Rain shouted.

The Red Queen's warnings continued echoing, turning more urgent every second. "Kill her!" Finally something she could agree with.

"You don't have any choice," Rain said. Matt leaned in and tried to coax her up, but she refused and shook him off. She could save them if they'd stop being so stubborn. Didn't they see that she wanted it all to end quickly? "Just do it NOW!"

Blondie yelled in frustration behind her, and Rain closed her eyes, ready to welcome death, screaming in anticipation. The Red Queen's voice suddenly ceased and there was a sparking noise. Her neck was still intact. _Son of a..._


	4. Without A Soul

Spence's wife had struck the monitor instead of Rain. Matt let out a sigh of relief at the absence of the computer's nagging voice. The lights went out and the Licker disappeared as well, cutting his relief short. The door clicked open behind them. Spence's wife brought her axe to the ready. An arm reached around, followed by a familiar face. A welcome one, at that.

"Kaplan," everyone exclaimed in surprise.

"The bitch wouldn't open the door, so I had to fry her," he said with a wry grin.

The Licker burst through the glass then, lighting a fire under Matt's feet. He grabbed Rain and ran past Kaplan. "What the fuck was that," the man yelled.

"Long story," shouted Spence's wife, already down the hall.

The train was not far off, thankfully. Matt could barely keep up the pace while supporting Rain's rag doll body with one arm. He gave up and picked her up in a cradling position. "Excuse me," he said in apology.

She blinked slowly at him, her dark irises barely visible below her heavy eyelids. "S'ok," she murmured thickly.

As they boarded their escape vehicle, he set her down against the wall. "Are you comfortable?"

"Much as I can be," she slurred. Matt felt a lump rise in his throat. They were so close to freedom and she was nearly gone.

* * *

Rain knew she wasn't going to make it. Even as Blondie injected the antivirus into her bloodstream, she knew she was too close to death for it to make a difference. "I don't want to be one of those things... walking around without a soul."

"You won't."

"When the time comes, you'll take care of it," she stammered, indicating the pistol.

"No one else is going to die," said Blondie. _Riiiiight._ Rain tried to roll her eyes but found that they already seemed to be rolling involuntarily. She managed to hand Spencer's ex her watch, which read eight minutes until lockdown. Her eyelids felt too heavy. She decided to rest them, and found herself drifting away until the _snap_ of Blondie's cocked gun coaxed her back to consciousness. Talk about trigger-happy. Her arm flew to the woman's wrist with speed she didn't know she could still muster.

"I'm not dead yet," Rain said in a low voice. _But close._ "I think I'll have that back."

She glanced up at Matt, who was backed against the wall of the train, looking terrified. _Grow a pair,_ she thought with a sneer. As if in response, the Licker's claws suddenly ripped through the metal with a piercing screech, sinking deep into Matt's arm. Rain knew she couldn't take much more. The last thing she saw was Matt's look of agony as he clapped his hand over the deep lacerations in his shoulder...

* * *

He didn't have the words to describe the pain he was in. It was as if the Licker was electrically charged. Matt's muscles convulsed without his permission as the creature tore through the train like paper and tossed Kaplan into the tunnel. _Holy fucking shit, we're toast._ He slammed the door to the cabin shut, temporarily holding the beast back. Not for long, however. It burst through just seconds later, knocking him to the ground.

Spence's wife saw him, held up her handgun, and pelted the creature with bullets. It screamed shrilly, but there was little other effect. _We're toast,_ Matt frantically thought again. Somehow he managed to struggle to his feet and, noticing a bundle of loose pipes hanging from the ceiling, made his way to them. The Licker's tongue shot out and grabbed Spence's wife by the ankle just as he swung the pipes toward it. The creature recoiled and the woman, acting quickly, pinned its prehensile tongue to a grate in the floor with a fallen pipe. "Open the doors," she shrieked.

_Doors, right, doors..._ Matt whirled around and nearly lost his balance when he saw what was approaching him. He stood there, petrified, not hearing anything but his own pulse in his ears. The undead Rain lunged at him.

* * *

A tiny portion of Rain's former consciousness flickered back into use just seconds after she had closed her eyes for the last time. There was no memory, no speech, no command, just instincts. Breathing, movement, eating. Her body stood on its own. Her eyes opened, revealing a hazy scene, as if she had spent too many hours in a chlorinated pool. Time was moving at half-speed. There was a thing in front of her. It was moving. There was a name for it. The small remainder of her mind could not remember it. M-... a m-... a _man_. MAN.

Instantly her brain registered that this... man was the solution to the innate desire for, what was it, food? Her blurred vision focused on the exposed muscle on his shoulder. She reached for it, mouth wide in anticipation. Food.

Meanwhile, the tiny bit of her former self was working desperately to make sense of these new developments. She could remember nothing before the food-man, but this small part of her mind knew there was something else before. Something. Man. Food. No, not food. Her tiny consciousness drew on every remaining mental resource as her body attacked the food-man of its own volition. There was something about the food-man...

Her feeble mind and hazy vision came into focus simultaneously. _MATT._ Man Matt. Man is Matt. She did not know who this Matt was, but her mind screamed that he was not food. Matt was pointing something at her. She cocked her head as her primitive thoughts scrambled to explain.

They were too slow. Matt squeezed the trigger and the bullet ripped through her brain, whipping her head back. Her body stumbled back, sliding down the wall behind her. _Matt..._ The tiny flicker of her former mind disappeared.

* * *

Matt stared back and forth from the gun in his hand to the dead woman propped against the wall. He swallowed hard and reminded himself that he had no choice. "I'm so sorry, Rain," he murmured.

His ears rang as he turned around and stared at the fireball below the train that was once the Licker. Rain's last deed had been to fall against the maintenance door button, saving the two remaining survivors from the creature. Matt dazedly reached over and pushed the button again. The creature's tongue was severed as the doors shut and left the two survivors in silence.

Turning back to Rain, Matt knelt in front of her. Silently, the woman in red sat beside him and took the soldier's limp hand. "She saved us."

Matt ignored her, lost in his thoughts. He brought his hand up to Rain's face. _Why did you have to die this way?_ How could they create such a virus? How could they do this to their own people?

He was jarred from his thoughts as the train began to slow, preparing for its last stop at the Spencer Mansion. He glanced over to see the only surviving woman, antivirus in hand, watching him. "I remembered my name," she said quietly. "It's Alice."

The train came to a halt with thirty seconds left on the clock. Matt reluctantly left Rain's side and followed Alice up the stairs as the thick doors sealed off The Hive behind them. He paused and looked back, feeling numb. "Come on," said Alice. He forced himself to follow her through the mansion, though he once again realized his arm was throbbing with pain. As they approached the front door, she collapsed. "I failed."

"Listen to me," Matt said, his hand on hers. "There was nothing else you could have done. The corporation's guilty here, not you! We finally have the proof and that way Umbrella c-... they can't..." He grunted, feeling the pain in his arm increase. "We can fight... _unh_..."

His arm had begun to spasm again. His vision became spotted and he lay down, cradling his infected arm. A roaring filled his head. Dimly he heard Alice say, "I'm not losing you!"

White things closed around him. Alice was screaming his name. He struggled weakly against the strong arms that lifted him onto a stretcher. "He's mutating," said an ominous voice. "I want him in the Nemesis program." _Nemesis...?_

He was barely able to lift his head and catch a glimpse of Alice fighting her way toward him as the biohazard unit wheeled him out of her sight. He became acutely aware of the pain in his arm and the fact that his muscles were flexing involuntarily. He looked down and was terrified to see what his limb had started to become. His veins were now clearly visible and the gashes had begun to split further.

He could no longer feel the pain now, but what he saw sickened him beyond belief. There were small fleshy tendrils snaking out of the rips in his arm. _He's mutating._ The voice echoed in his mind as he turned his head to the side and vomited fiercely.

"Give him this," said the same ominous voice. His chest felt as if they had cut it open. No, stabbed, he realized. They had injected something into his heart. With his last thoughts, he made the connection. They didn't need him alive. He was infected. Soon he would be one of the zombies that infested The Hive. As the poison seeped though his blood, shutting down his body, visions of Lisa, Alice, and Rain flashed through his memory. Then, much like Rain's had, his mind went dark. Moments later, a tiny portion regained consciousness, struggling to regain his memories and his human self.

All he knew was Umbrella.


End file.
